At the end of October 2016, NHS Property Services Falmouth hospital's landlord and Falmouth Hospital planed to undertake an extensive range of essential building work. This was to enable the installation of a new fire alarm, a new nurse call system for patients and other safety improvements. This meant the closure of several facilities at the hospital and led to questions being asked to it's future, "would the work prove too costly", "would the wards every open again?"

This coincided with publicity about the NHS's future plans with the sustainability and transformation partnerships (STPs) - Local partnership to improve health and care.

The NHS and local councils have formed partnerships in 44 areas covering all of England, to improve health and care. Each area has developed proposals built around the needs of the whole population in the area, not just those of individual organisations.

The focus of the STP document is on preventing ill health and providing as much care as possible at home or in the community. So would this effect the future of Falmouth Hospital?

Save our Falmouth believes that the future of Falmouth Hospital should include expansion and upgrades in facilities, we have an ever growing population and must have the infrastructure to support this growth.

Candy Atherton, C&IOS Sustainability & Transformation sub committee member came along and spoke at our April public meeting.

A letter was sent to our MP, see download link opposite.

Dear SarahProtecting the Future of Falmouth Hospital

As I am sure you will be aware, Save our Falmouth is an action group whose aims and objectives are primarily to safeguard the interests of the community here in Falmouth. At the present time there is great apprehension amongst the local population regarding the vulnerability of Falmouth Hospital during the present review of the sustainability of community hospitals in Cornwall. As a result of those concerns we have been approached by many residents of Falmouth and the surrounding area, asking for our help in"Saving Falmouth Hospital".

As you will appreciate, Falmouth Hospital serves not only the population of Falmouth and its visitors, but also the outlying villages and is an integral part of our health facilities in our community.

Falmouth's population is now the highest in Cornwall and is continuing to increase. We have a University that will soon expand its number by 50% to approximately 7,500 students, as well as a large workforce, incorporating Falmouth Docks, Pendennis Shipyard and many other marine related businesses. This is in addition to Cornwall Council’s plan to increase the number of new houses in the area. At the present time Falmouth is receiving country-wide media coverage with many high profile events being held in the town, and on such occasions the population increases significantly.

As a group we strongly support the long-term future of Falmouth Hospital and to this end we would be grateful if you could provide us with any relevant information which may be of assistance and inform Falmouth residents, for example:

a. Any relevant information to date regarding the review which may affect our hospital.b. Names, email addresses etc of members of the review body who will be responsible for the decision making as to the future of our community hospitals.c. Names of the relevant bodies who are responsible for the funding of community hospitals. It is understood the building at Falmouth is owned by a separate entity and the health services funded by NHS, but would appreciate confirmation of this.d. Any other relevant information.

Save our Falmouth wish to help in any way we can to save our hospital and if you have any further suggestions as to how this can be achieved we would welcome your comments.

As a group we strongly support the long-term future of Falmouth Hospital

Letter to our MP

Thank you for your letter from Save our Falmouth. I am very familiar with the work of Save our Falmouth and have met members of the group.

Like you I care very much about Falmouth Hospital. Not only in my capacity as local MP but as my family has lived and worked in the town for generations, I am passionate about Falmouth. My sister was a nurse there for a while and I have elderly friends I have visited at the Hospital. As I live in Mylor Bridge my family and I have often used the excellent Minor Injuries Unit.

I recognise your description of the challenges and opportunities that Falmouth faces and share your determination to ensure we have good NHS and care services for our growing population. During my time as the local MP my top property has been ensuring more investment for our NHS. You can find some more information about this on my website.

I understand the concern that many residents have for the future of Falmouth Hospital. Unfortunately, there has been some scaremongering in the local media and some reports have suggested that there are planned closures of Treliske and Falmouth Hospitals. Sadly, I believe that this has arisen as a result of politically motivated scaremongering.

I am concerned that this has caused unnecessary worry and distress to local people.

As soon as I read these reports I contacted the communications lead for the Cornwall Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STPs). He assured me that, contrary to what these stories have suggested, there are currently no plans to close any hospitals at all.

I fully support Falmouth Hospital and would like to see the role of community hospitals developing to ease the stress on Treliske. I have recently contacted Jackie Pendleton, Interim Chief Officer, KCCG, regarding using community hospitals to ease the pressure of delayed discharges on Treliske. I have attached her response as it details the Discharge to Assess programme. You may be interested to read that pathway 2 uses the community hospital ward setting.

I do hope this information serves to address your concerns.

You asked me who you could contact about Falmouth Hospital and I thoroughly recommend Cornwall Healthwatch. It is a totally independent, tax payer funded group whose job it is to be the patients voice in Cornwall. Healthwatch Cornwall’s contact details are as follows:Healthwatch Cornwall, 6, Walsingham Place, Truro, Cornwall, TR1 2RPTelephone: 0800 0381 281Email: enquiries@healthwatchcornwall.co.uk

Finally, I would like to assure that should any future plan emerge that involves closing the hospital and removing all the services from Falmouth, I would be setting up a campaign to prevent that happening.

Thank you once more for taking the time to write. Please don’t hesitate to let me know if you feel that I can be of further assistance to you.

Unfortunately, there has been some scaremongering in the local media and some reports have suggested that there are planned closures of Treliske and Falmouth Hospitals. Sadly, I believe that this has arisen as a result of politically motivated scaremongering.